Visayas State University

College of Engineering

Department of Agricultural Engineering

Visca, Baybay City, Leyte

AE40

Fundamentals of Agricultural Engineering

Name : Richylle I. Gonzales Date Submitted : May 22,2018

Laboratory Schedule: Mon 7:00-10:00 Due Date : May 22, 2018

Lab Ex. #7

Moldboard Plowing Using Hand Tractor

INTRODUCTION

Importance

A tractor is an important vehicle in farming. A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically

designed to deliver at a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer
or machinery used in agriculture or construction. Tractors can be generally classified by number
of axles or wheels, with main categories of two-wheel and four-wheel tractors. The two-wheel
tractor can be attached with a trailer, a moldboard plow, and a rotavator.

Knowing how to manipulate a hand tractor for moldboard plowing will help us gain respect for
the laborers of the farm who do this job. Most importantly it is necessary for managers to know
the performance or monitor the plowing performance of the laborers. This will help the
managers monitor if the laborer is efficient or not. Through using the formula for computing the
plowing performance, the managers can go to field in the morning and then get the necessary
information, can go back to the office and then compute. So managers can do another office
works. And then at the afternoon after working hours, he can go back to the field and then get
the necessary measurements or data and then compute. Then if the efficiency is low, the
manager now can take corrective action about the laborer.

Objectives

1. To be able to manipulate the tractor for moldboard plowing.

2. To be able to monitor the plowing performance.

METHODOLOGY

Our instructor discussed well and gave us the formula how to monitor the plowing
performance. Then, we went to the field, get the necessary data and plowed it using the
tractor. After plowing, we computed our performance and efficiency.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The length of the field is 24 m. and the width of cut of the plow is. 18 m. At three trials of
plowing, we get the average time of 61.67 seconds. The Ct is 4.19 m2 /min and then convert it
to ha/day, we get 0.20 ha/day. The Ce is equal to 0.06 ha/day. The efficiency of our plowing
performance is only 30%. This very low efficiency was due to lack of experience because it was
all our first time using the hand tractor in plowing and the time of changing the driver of the
tractor contributed for the low efficiency.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, it is important to know how to manipulate the tractor used for plowing. And
monitoring the plowing performance is really very helpful to managers who manages a farm,
not only to managers but also to the owners of a farm who are hands on to the activities of
their farm. This help the managers to know the efficiency of the laborers.

REFERENCE CITED

Houghton Mifflin (2000). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.).
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. p. 1829. ISBN 978-0-395-82517-4.